VOL. III. MIDSUM. N. DREAM. "And that they may perceive the heavens frown, "Ne let houfe-fyres, nor lightning's helpeleffe harms, "Ne let mifchievous witches with their charmes "Ne let hobgoblins &c." STEEVENS. 39. By their increase now knows not which is which.] To follow Dr. Johnson's note.-So, in our author's 97th Sonnet: "The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, "Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime MALONE. Ibid. To follow Tyrwhitt's note:]-Henchman. Quafi haunch-man. One that goes behind another. Pedifequus. E. The learned commentator might have given his etymology fome fupport from the following paffage in K. Henry IV. P. II. vol. V. p. 566: "O Weftmoreland, thou art a fummer bird, STEEVENS. 47. Add to my note 3.] Again, in Marlton's Dutch Courtezan, 1605: "So could I live in defert moft unknowen, "Yourself to me enough were populous." MALONE. 55. Nature fhews art,] The first folio reads :-Nature her thews art. I fuppofe the words were accidentally tranfpofed at the prefs, and would therefore read :--Nature fhews her art. The fecond folio however reads (which may be right)-Nature here fhews art. MALONE. Ibid. Not Hermia, but Helena I love.] The first folio has: -but Helena now I love. MALONE. 59. No, I am no fuch thing; I am a man, as other men are : and there indeed, let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.] There are probably many temporary allufions to particular incidents and characters fcattered through our author's plays, which gave a poignancy to certain paffages, while the events were recent, and the perfons pointed at, yet living.In the fpeech now before us, I think it not improbable that he meant to allude to a fact which happened in his time, at an entertainment exhibited before queen Elizabeth. It is recorded in a manufcript collection of anecdotes, MIDSUM. anecdotes, ftories, &c. entitled, Merry Passages and Jeafts, Vol. III. Mf. Harl. 6395: "There was a spectacle prefented to queen Eliza- N. DREAM. beth upon the water, and among others Harry Goldingham was to reprefent Arion upon the dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be very hoarfe and unpleasant, when he came to perform it, he tears off his difguife, and fwears he was none of Arion, not be, but even honeft Har. Goldingham; which blunt difcoverie pleafed the queene better than if it had gone through in the right way :-yet he could order his voice to an inftrument exceeding well." The collector of thefe Merry Paffages appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Eftrange. MALONE. 61. If I were fair, Thibe, I were only thine.] I think, this ought to be pointed differently :-If I were, [i. e. as true, &c.] fair Thifbe, I were only thine. MALONE. 62. The oufel-cock fo black of hue &c.] In The Arbor of Amorous Devifes, 4to, bl. 1. are the following lines: "The chattering pie, the jay, and eke the quaile, "The thruftle-cock that was fo black of hewe." The former leaf and the title-page being torn out of the copy I confulted, I am unable either to give the two preceding lines of the ftanza, or to ascertain the date of the book.. STEEVENS. 66. I fhall defire of you more acquaintance, good mafter Cobweb; if I cut my finger I fhall make bold with you.] In The Mayde's Metamorphofis, a comedy, by Lilly, there is a dialogue between fome forefters and a troop of fairies, very fimilar to the prefent: Mapfo. I pray you, Sir, what might I call you? "Fai. My name is Penny. "Mop. I am forry I cannot purfe you. "Frisco. I pray you, Sir, what might I call you? 2 Fai. My name is Cricket. "Frif. I would I were a chimney for your fake." The Maid's Metamorphofis was not printed till 1600, but was probably written fome years before. Mr. Warton fays, (Hiflory of English Poetry, vol. II. p. 393.) that Lilly's laft play appeared in 1597. MALONE. 68. And forth my minnock comes.] I believe the read- ̈ ing of the folio is right: And forth my mimick comes. The line has been explained as if it related to Thibe, but it does not relate to her, but to Pyramus. Bottom had just VOL. III. been playing that part, and had retired into the brake. MIDSUM. "Anon his Thibe must be answered, And forth my mimick N. DREAM. (i. e. my actor) comes." In this there seems no difficulty. Mimick is ufed as fynonymous to actor, by Decker, in his Gul's Hornebooke, 1609: "Draw what troope you can from the stage after you; the mimicks are beholden to you for allowing them elbow-room." Again, in his Satiremaftix, 1602; "Thou [B. Jonfon] haft forgot how thou amblest in a leather pitch by a play-waggon in the highway, and took'st mad Jeronymo's part, to get fervice amongst the mimicks." MALONE. 72. And from thy hated prefence part I fo.] So has been fupplied by fome of the modern editors. MALONE. Ibid. For debt that bankrupt fleep-] The first and fecond folio read-ip. The fame error has, perhaps, happened in Meafure for Mcafure: "Which for thefe nineteen years we have let flip." MALONE. 75. But you must join in fouls &c.] The phrafe, in fouls, has been fo well fupported, that there remains nothing to be faid relative to it. I fufpect, however, that the words were tranfpofed at the prefs, and would read: "Can you not hate me, as I know you do "In fouls, but you must join to mock me to?" So, a little lower : "You hate me with your hearts." MALONE. Poffibly by adding a fingle letter, the fenfe may be lefs embarraffed: But you must join in fcouls to work me too. E. 76. Left to thy peril, thou aby it dear.] The folio has abide, MALONE. 77.brought me to thy found.] Folio that found. MALONE, 83. Thou shalt aby it.] The folio reads-abide it. MALONE. 84. I am amaz'd and know not what to fay.] This line is not in the folio. MALONE. 89. To follow Mr. Tyrwhitt's note.] I do not perceive defect in the metre of the fecond line. It is the fame as in the former ftanza. MALONE. any 9o. overflow'n with a honey-bag.] It should be over flow'd flow'd.-Yet the mistake is as likely to have been the author's Vol. III. as the tranfcriber's. MALONE. - 91. So doth the woodbine &c.] After Dr. Johnson's note.The following paffage in The Fatal Union, 1640, in which the honey-fuckle is fpoken of as the flower, and the woodbine as the plant, fupports Dr. Johnson's interpre tation : -As fit a gift as this were for a lord—a honey fuckle, "The amorous woodbine's offspring." MALONE. 95. After Steevens's note:] A ftatute 3 Hen. VII. c. 14. directs certain offences committed in the king's palace, to be tried by twelve fad men of the king's houfhold. E. 96. Uncouple in the western valley-go.] The folio reads; Uncouple in the western valley let them go. Shakspeare might have written: Uncoupled in the western valley let them go. Ibid. they bay'd the bear.] Add to my note :-Shakspeare must have read the Knight's Tale in Chaucer, where are mentioned Thefeus's "white alandes (grey-hounds] to huntin at the lyon, or the wild bere." TOLLET. Ibid. My hounds are bred &c.] This paffage has been imitated by Lee in his Theodofius: "Then through the woods we chac'd the foaming boar, With ears and chefts that dafh'd the morning dew." MALONE. 99. Melted as is the fnow.] Is has been supplied by some of the editors. MALONE. 100. And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel, Mine own and not mine own.] To follow Dr. Warburton's note.-An anonymous critick fuppofes that Shakspeare had in his thoughts the mine of rubies, belonging to the king of Zeylan (mentioned by Le Blanc and other travellers) out of which the king had all that exceeded the weight of four or five carrats, and none under that weight-on which account the jewels of the mine might be called his own and not his own. I do not fuppofe any fuch allufion to have been intended. MIDSUM. N. DREAM. VOL. III. Helena, I think, only means to fay, that having found DemeMIDSUM. trius unexpectedly, the confidered her property in him as inN. DREAM. fecure as that which a perfon has in a jewel that he has found by accident; which he knows not whether he shall retain, and which therefore may properly enough be called his own and not his own. Helena does not fay, as Dr. Warburton has reprefented, that Demetrius was like a jewel, but that fhe had found him, like a jewel &c A kindred thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra: The fame kind of expreffion is found alfo in The Merchant of Venice: "Where ev'ry fomething, being blent together, "Expreft, and not expreft." MALONE. 104. in a fine frenzy rolling-] This feems to have been imitated by Drayton in his Epifle to 7. Reynolds on Poets and Poetry: defcribing Marlowe, he fays: -that fine madness ftill he did retain, 109. Where I have come great clerks have purposed So, in Pericles: MALONE, "She fings like one immortal, and she dances "Deep clerks fhe dumbs." It should be obferved, that periods in the text is ufed in the fenfe of full fiops. MALONE. " 111. And finds his trufly Thisbe's mantle flain.] The first folio reads: And finds his Thifbie's mantle flaine. The fecond has : And finds his gentle Thisby's mantle flain. MALONE. Thefe |